1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable communication terminal and more particularly to a portable communication terminal which enables to realize seamless establishment of direct communications between portable communication terminals by means of Bluetooth (trade mark) by a simple operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Compact and high-performance portable communication terminals such as portable telephones, PHSs and the like have become widespread in recent years. Usage patterns of such portable communication terminals are not limited to voice communications but are variable including access to the Internet, transmission/reception of electronic mail, reception of prescribed contents delivered by a prescribed server, and the like.
And, data to be transmitted/received between such portable communication terminals is also variable including text data, audio data, image data, program data, and the like.
Some of the portable communication terminals have a short-distance radio communication function represented by Bluetooth to make it possible to perform direct communications between the terminals having the short-distance radio communication function, namely direct exchange of information between the terminals without through a server or a general communication network. In addition to the communications between the portable communication terminals, the portable communication terminal is also connected to a PC having the short-distance radio communication function to perform dial-up connection to the Internet or the like. Thus, the usage patterns of portable communication terminals are further expanding.
When Bluetooth is used for the transmission/reception of data, it is necessary to establish a connection between desired terminals by Bluetooth before data is sent or received.
The Bluetooth communication function which is included in the communication terminals is not active when it is not in use, namely it is inactive, so that it is necessary to make the Bluetooth communication function active at both terminals before starting communications.
When the Bluetooth communication function is used for communications, it is necessary to use a prescribed communication application, and this communication application must be activated at both terminals before starting the communications by the Bluetooth communication function.
Therefore, to start communications between a plurality of terminals, it is necessary that both terminals which perform communications make the Bluetooth function active and also activate the communication application to be used for the Bluetooth communication.
For example, when a personal computer (PC) and a portable telephone are radio-connected by Bluetooth for a dial-up connection, it is necessary to respectively activate the Bluetooth functions of the PC and the portable telephone to establish a connection by Bluetooth and to activate the communication applications used for the Bluetooth communications.
However, it is troublesome and burdensome for the users to respectively activate the Bluetooth functions of all the terminals performing communications and also to activate the communication applications in the same way as in the above example of the PC and the portable telephone.
When it is desired to mutually communicate between the portable communication terminals by Bluetooth, a procedure for activation of the communication applications is variable depending on whether the Bluetooth function of the destination terminal is active or not. Therefore, the users must orally consult with each other in advance about a procedure for activation of the applications.